April 5 I Monday

1 Samuel 1-3

Luke 8:26-56

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.”   —Luke 24:27

Following Jesus’s crucifixion, two of His disciples were walking the seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They were disappointed disciples, for the hope that had been building within them for the past three years was now shattered. As far as they knew, Jesus was in the tomb and their confident expectation that He was the Messiah was buried with Him. The dream had evaporated, the curtain had fallen, the show was over; there was nothing to do but mope.

       As these two disciples walked, the risen Jesus joined them, but they were kept from recognizing Him. After patiently listening to their grief, Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26). Jesus then proceeded to explain how the entire Old Testament points to Him. What a wonderful Bible study that must have been for them––Jesus expositing Jesus in the Scriptures! No wonder why after Jesus left, they said to each other later, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

       Before we are too hard on these disciples for what they missed, we must acknowledge that we have an advantage they did not. We can read the Bible backwards! We know the end of the story, but they were living in the middle of it. They only had the Old Testament, but we who have read the final chapter know that from its opening words, the Bible is all about Jesus. Although He is not named until the New Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, all of Scripture bears witness about Jesus and it cannot be understood or make sense apart from Him.

       The key to unlocking the treasures of Scripture is not a hermeneutic or a system of theology into which everything else must be squeezed; it is the Lord Jesus Himself. He is the clue that makes sense of the mystery, the picture that makes sense of the puzzle. As the author of Hebrews states, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming––not the realities themselves” (Hebrews 10:1). Jesus is foreshadowed in all that is written in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, He steps out of the shadows into the light. He is what unlocks the Scriptures, and as we come to Him in faith and read the whole of Scripture from this perspective, we will begin to meet Him around every corner and in every cul-de-sac of the story.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, You are what makes Scripture make sense. As I read Your Word, grant me the clarity to see You in every story, every teaching and every page. Thank You, Lord.